Kirkpatrick tells a story based on a true event that walks the reader through the grief of a lost loved one, a faith broken, and a purpose destroyed.
Although I struggled with the many characters, and the plot was not as fast paced as some, the depth of character growth and development made me continue to read. It did take a bit to get involved in the characters...I even put it aside for several days debating whether I wanted to finish it...The aspect of community over individual seemed more like a cult than I liked...but as I finished, I was brought to understand what that 'community' was suppose to do. ( )

I almost decided not to finish this series, but I changed my mind and I am glad I did. This was a good sequel to the first book in this series, and I know I will be reading book 3 soon. These books are full of historical details of how life was for these people who left their community in Missouri and are now living in the Oregon and Washington territories. Emma Giesy is a very stron-willed young woman, who with her husband and children have decided to live in the remote coastal forest of the Washington territory. She suffers a great loss and many disappointments throughout this story. Her strong-will character was appreciated in book one by me, but in this book I see how damaging her will can be. We all need people and Emma refuses to be "beholden" to anyone. She suffers for her stubborness and my heart goes out to her and she learns the hard way that we need people in our life and that not everyone expects something in return. A good historical series. ( )

http://www.titletrakk.com/a_tendering_in_the_storm.html ( )

Emma and her husband Christian moved out to the Washington territory with the Missouri Bethelites, under the leadership of Whilhelm Keil. Emma and her husband have broken off a bit from the group, however, and moved to the coast where he is trying his hand at oystering. Emma is a strong willed woman who resents much of the rule that this religious sect has on her, so her influence was what caused the split. Emma may have to change her ways, however, when tragedy strikes and she is forced to learn to depend on others.
Besides Emma, Kiel's wife Louisa also shares some of her story, which adds variety as she is a much different character than Emma. I found this story a bit hard to get into at first. It's the second of the series so I didn't have the back story, and the ways of this community and their old world speech took a bit of getting used to. Emma is a very sympathetic character and the portrayl of her spiritual journey seems true to life, with a satisfying ending. Anyone who is interested in the history of Christian religious movements and sects like this one will find this one particularly interesting. ( )